iStockphoto / Lucas Conaway
It has always bothered me that the Atlantic Snook isn’t the official saltwater state fish of my home state of Florida and the sailfish is because while sailfish are incredible to catch and Florida provides some of the best sailfish fishing on earth, everyone in Florida has an opportunity throughout the year to catch snook. The Florida state fishing record for snook is 45.75-pound fish caught in Jupiter Inlet by angler Heather Connors back in 2015 but over in the Pacific, the Pacific Black Snook species gets bigger than that…
The IGFA Fishing World Record for Pacific Black Snook is a 59 pound, 8 ounce fish caught by angler Ward Michaels in Quepos, Costa Rica back in 2014, an area that is best known for roosterfish fishing (I’ve been, it’s awesome). One fisherman on TikTok, Lucas C, believes one he recently caught might be even bigger than that.
His video has gone viral on social media. The caption on the video reads ‘possible world record snook’ and there are frames where I’m semi-convinced this could be a potential record and there are other frames where I’m not. Watch the video and you be the judge for yourself but I have also included another Pacific Black Snook below that many believe is a world record contender for you to compare sizes.
@lucascfishin Possible world record Pacific Black Snook @Klae – – – #snook #snookfishing #giantsnook #robalo #monstruo #giantfish #rivermonster #centralamerica #worldrecord #record #50inchsnook #50
For starters, that fish in the net does not look 59+ pounds to me. I’ve caught plenty of big fish in my life and that does not look 60 pounds. But his hand on top of the belly of the fish at the 10-second mark, that is convincing. His hand is dwarfed by the belly of that fish.
Then his hand compared to the fork of the tail at the 14-second mark is convincing as well. That is a MASSIVE tail on this Pacific Black Snook…But is it over 59 pounds? Seeing that fish go in the net, it is hard to be convinced.
For context, here is another Pacific Black Snook caught in Costa Rica back in 2023. This video is often tagged in posts where people claim their snook could be a record. There is no official weight on this Pacific Black Snook but it is an absolute UNIT caught on a tiny bait casting rod:
@talamanca_de_pesca #robalo #talamancadepesca #63529192 #viral #enviosatodoelpais🇨🇷 #pesca #emprendedor #premio
Without scales it is hard to compare these fish. We also don’t know how tall the Costa Rican angler holding this snook is so there’s no real gauge on how long it is. But I almost feel like that fish is bigger than the one above, what do you all think? Let me know in the Facebook comments!